Estudo de caso para implementação de painéis fotovoltaicos para geração de energia elétrica no Complexo Campus da UFRN

Abstract

With the increase in population and technological innovations, the demand for electricity is increasing, especially in urban centers. Energy consumption is associated with a better life quality because the technological innovations that provide comfort need electricity for their operation. The Sun provides sufficient energy to supply the world's electricity demand; in addition, this energy is supplied in a clean way, with less environmental impacts and inexhaustible if considered the terrestrial time scale. Compared to other energy sources, solar is considered an excellent option to reduce environmental impacts, because it is not necessary the flooding of large areas such as for hydroelectric plants and does not emit pollutant gases as in thermoelectric. In addition, the panels can be sized to occupy spaces that are not being used, for example, the roof of buildings. Brazil is an abundant country with regard to of solar irradiation (the main factor for the production of photovoltaic energy), especially in the northeast region where there are higher horizontal global irradiance indices (rate of total energy per unit area incident on a horizontal surface), in the inclined plane (rate of total energy per unit area incident on an inclined plane at the local latitude in relation to the Earth's surface) and in the normal direct (rate of energy per unit area coming directly from the Sun incident perpendicular to the surface). The city of Natal, capital of Rio Grande do Norte is known as "The Bride of the Sun", because of the 365 days of the year, on average 300 of them are sunny. The Campus Complex (set of university residences) of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), the object of study of this project, is home to students from all over Brazil, especially those residing in the countryside cities of the RN. Through field research, electronic devices were tabulated and consumption values were calculated. The Campus Complex has an average electricity demand equivalent to 34,121.72 kwh / month. All this energy is currently provided by Companhia Energética do Rio Grande do Norte (COSERN), from hydroelectric plants and wind farms. The UFRN, cradle of technology in this city, is a perfect setting for developing this project, serving as a model and incentive for the external community to adopt cleaner forms of energy. In view of this, this project presented the technical feasibility study for the implementation of an energy system provided by photovoltaic panels, as well as the study of the installation area and the necessary investment that reached a minimum value of R$ 725,000.00.